Man accidentally shoots friend while trying to scare off menace

Andrea Hickson

A man was accidentally shot in the calf by his neighbor Tuesday morning then sent authorities on a chase for the wrong man.

According to Lt. Paul Dailey with the Covington Police Department, officers and detectives responded to the home on Tara Drive around 11 a.m. where they found the 32-year-old victim shot in the calf.

The victim allegedly told authorities that a young black male with dreadlocked hair had approached him while he was outside of his home smoking a cigarette and shot him, fleeing toward the Turner Lake complex walking/running track.

Officers immediately began a search of the area and detectives started processing the crime scene when the victim’s girlfriend returned to the scene from the hospital to give a statement. However, according to Dailey, her account of the events that led to her boyfriend’s injury did not seem to match the victim’s statement. At the urging of a family member, the woman reportedly decided to tell them the truth of what happened that morning.

According to the woman, the victim was good friends with the man who lived across the street from them, 39-year-old Andrea Lamar Hickson, and knew that Hickson and his wife had been having issues with a 20-year-old male who was having a relationship with his 15-year-old stepdaughter.

The victim was standing outside of his home smoking when he reportedly noticed the 20-year-old sneaking into the home, when the adults were not at home and the juvenile female was home from school, and called Hickson.

Dailey said that when Hickson came home he and the 20-year-old got into a verbal confrontation inside the home and as the young man was leaving, Hickson came out of the home with a gun, which he then showed to the 20-year-old who ran across the street where the victim was still standing.

Hickson allegedly fired a warning shot toward the ground in order to scare the 20-year-old, which sent him running in the direction of the Turner Lake Complex. However, the bullet ricocheted and struck the victim in the calf.

Hickson was arrested and charged with reckless conduct and aggravated assault in the accidental shooting of his friend.